Intoxicated drivers are a major cause of traffic accident fatalities in the United States. A recent NHTSA report showed that 40% of the total accident fatalities in the U.S. in the year 2003 were alcohol related. More specifically, 12,373 motor vehicle occupants were killed in crashes that involved a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08% or higher. This equates to over 33% of the 37,132 U.S. motor vehicle fatalities in 2003. In addition to the societal impact, the cost of such crashes in the U.S. is about $40 billion per year. It is well established that the rate of fatal traffic accidents per mile traveled is related to a driver's (BAC) and that there is a correlation between impairment in driving skills and the driver's BAC. The definition of drunk driving in the U.S. involves a BAC level of either 0.08% or 0.10%, depending on the particular state law. Moreover, the states of the U.S. that currently have a 0.10% BAC limit have passed laws lowering the BAC limit to 0.08%, to take effect soon. Various approaches to combat drunk driving have been utilized. The following existing approaches require active involvement of a vehicle driver.
Ethanol concentration in human breath is a good indication of BAC. Inside the human lung, there is a chemical equilibrium between the concentration of ethanol in the air and the concentration of ethanol in an individual's blood. An approach to combat drunk driving, which utilizes this notion of ethanol concentration in human breath, uses an electrochemical sensor to measure ethanol concentration in air. For law enforcement purposes, an electrochemical sensor is built into an object such as a clipboard or flashlight that a police officer can, under certain circumstances, justifiably insert into a vehicle. However, currently available electrochemical sensors have a limited lifetime and typically must be replaced after about three years. To be used as an on-board component of the safety system, an ethanol sensor must have a lifetime of at least ten to fifteen years.
An additional approach to combat drunk driving uses a heated film of metal oxide that changes electrical resistance in response to ethanol concentration. Such sensors are used in commercially available “breath interlocks,” sometimes mandated following a drunk driving conviction, which requires the driver to breathe into a tube to check for excess breath alcohol before the vehicle will start. However, such sensors do not have sufficient sensitivity for passive detection of a drunk driver in regard to measuring ethanol vapor in the air of a vehicle cabin. The breath sample blown into a tube is undiluted so the detection level needed is only about 210 ppm ethanol. Also, the minimum ethanol concentration that can be reliably detected with a metal oxide film is typically in the range of 10 to 50 ppm. A further disadvantage is that the response to ethanol concentration is non-linear as a function of ethanol concentration.
A further approach to combat drunk driving uses an electrochemical sensor that is pressed against an individual's skin to determine alcohol intoxication through remote detection of ethanol that evaporates from the driver's skin. This approach is an active system since contact with the driver's skin is required. The lifetime of this sensor has not been demonstrated.
U.S. patents have been issued for approaches that combat drunk driving that involve passing infrared through one of the driver's extremities, such as a finger, or using Raman spectroscopy to measure the concentration of ethanol in the fluid at the surface of the driver's eyes (i.e., U.S. Pat No. 6,574,501). These approaches are impractical for on-board vehicle use as well.
Further approaches to combat drunk driving exist. The following approaches are passive since active involvement of the driver is not required. For example, monitoring a vehicle driver's eyes to determine driver intoxication has been attempted. The direction of the driver's gaze is monitored as they visually follow a moving object. It is believed that an intoxicated person moves their gaze direction in jumps rather than following an object's motion smoothly and continuously.
A recently published patent application (U.S. Patent Application No. 20040141171, assigned to Delphi Technologies, Inc., filed Jan. 21, 2003) provides increased sensitivity with a short path length by using a vapor concentrator. Ethanol vapor is collected by passing air that contains ethanol vapor over an adsorber for a period of time. The adsorber is then heated to release the ethanol vapor. Sensors are utilized that detect ethanol vapor by measuring its effect on the electrical conductance of a heated metal oxide film on a ceramic substrate.
Infrared detection has been used to quantify ethanol concentration in breath for law enforcement purposes, but the instruments used typically have a path length of about 1 meter making it large and bulky. For passive sensing in a vehicle cabin, utilizing this instrument, infrared detection would require a path length on the order of 100 meters. This is impractical for an on-board sensor.